Monday, 16th March 2009, seven members of the Rossport Solidarity Camp occupied the Shell office in Belmullet, County Mayo, for over an hour, in support of Maura Harrington. Maura has now been in jail for six days of her thirty day sentence.
The camp members of the camp entered the office and held up a banner reading “Free Maura”. Shell’s Communication officer Christy Loftus came into the lobby and fielded questions from the group for the entire period. Some people made it into the main part of the building; during this time the fire alarms went off in the building. Gardaí were called to the office, came inside and asked the group to leave. The group remained in the building for another 45 minutes questioning Christy Loftus and then left later of their own accord. No one was arrested.
Also this morning, the Shell to Sea trailer was opened at Bellanaboy refinery site.
Shell to Sea campaigner Pat O’Donnell awoke this morning to find that the windows on his boat had been broken. It is not clear whether the vandalism is related to the campaign against Shell, but it was clearly targeted at O’Donnell’s boat, which was the only one damaged out of a boat yard of over 20 boats. This is the second time his boat has been targeted in the past two years.
